Introductory E-mail to Grantees to Request Partner Contact Information (from CDC)

Attachment B1. Introductory E-mail to Grantees to Request Partner Contact Information (from CDC)

Subject: Upcoming Coverdell Program Evaluation - Cost Study with Grantees and Partners

Good afternoon ______________,

As you know, the CDC Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention and RTI International are conducting a program evaluation of the current Coverdell program. An important part of the evaluation involves a cost study of the program implementation costs for the nine Coverdell grantees and their key partners (OMB # ). This cost study will provide important information to health departments and policymakers regarding the actual costs of key program activities and, when linked with outcome data, will help to demonstrate the return on investment of the state Coverdell programs. It is essential to collect costs at both the grantee level and the partner level, as we’ve learned that partners often bear substantial implementation costs. Your input, as well as input from your partners, will be invaluable for documenting the partners’ costs contributing to implementation of Coverdell activities and will be essential for supporting future work.

We are working with RTI to make this data collection effort as streamlined and efficient as possible. To reduce the total burden of partners, we will only invite a subset of partners to participate, for about 23 partners for each grantee. Partner participation will be voluntary and we will also minimize the burden to partners who agree to participate. The tool was piloted with a partner organization before fielding in order to ensure minimum burden. Those who agree to participate will be asked to provide information on costs contributing to key Coverdell program activities. To facilitate the data collection, RTI will provide partners with a web-based cost study tool for organizing estimated costs. The tool is hosted on a secure, password protected server. RTI will distribute logins and passwords to participating partners. All data submitted will be deidentified and only reported in aggregate. RTI will also be available to assist respondents with the tool through an introductory webinar, as well as contact information for additional questions and technical difficulties.

In preparation for the upcoming cost study, we ask that grantees provide contact information for a sample of partners involved with implementing Coverdell activities. Please complete the attached contact information table at your earliest convenience, or no later than [insert date]. Ideally, we would like to have the contact information of the person who is familiar with everyday operations, management, and administration of all activities that support the Coverdell Program. This information will be shared with RTI so that RTI can invite your select partners to participate in the study. We also ask the you reach out to these partners in advance of RTI’s email to provide them with basic information about the study. This will allow you to initiate the conversation about the study before they receive RTI’s email. We have included draft email text below that you can use in reaching out to partners. Please feel free to tailor this text based on your relationship with specific partners.

For questions about this component of the PCNASP evaluation, please contact the CDC Evaluation leads Kincaid Lowe Beasley ([email protected] or 404-718-6633) or the RTI evaluation lead Stephanie Teixeira-Poit ([email protected] or 919-541-5915).

Thank you,

CDC

Contact Information Table (Please include information for 23 partners)

Size of Partner / #	Name of Partner Organization	Name of Contact Person at Partner Organization	Email Address of Contact Person
Small Hospital Partners (<10,000 patients annually)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Medium Hospital Partners (10,000 – 20,000 patients annually)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Large Hospital Partners (>20,000 patients annually)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Other Partners (Non-hospital)
1
2
3

Dear [insert contact]:

Good afternoon. We wanted to let you know that as part of the CDC evaluation of the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program, RTI International is conducting an analysis of the program implementation costs for 9 Coverdell-funded health departments and their key partners (OMB #). This cost study will provide important information to health departments and policymakers regarding the actual costs of key program activities and, when linked with outcome data, it will be able to demonstrate the return on investment of stroke care quality improvement efforts across the continuum of care. As a key partner in the [Recipient] Coverdell Program, RTI will be reaching out to you to request your participation in the Coverdell cost study. Your participation in this study is voluntary. Your input will be invaluable for documenting the partner costs contributing to implementation of Coverdell activities and will be essential for supporting future work. We hope that you will consider participating.

Kind Regards,